Rethinking Immune Exudates: Reassessing the Value of Extracellular Traps in Health and Disease

Speaker: Dr. Priyan Weerappuli, co-founder of Extrinsic Immunity Therapeutics

Abstract: Historically dismissed as a mere byproduct of infection, pus-like inflammatory exudates – specifically extracellular traps (ETs) – are now recognized as sophisticated products of an active immune process. This presentation examines the diverse roles of extracellular traps (ETs) in health and disease—from accelerating wound healing to driving cancer progression. Bridging immunology and biomedical engineering, we present a portfolio of translational discoveries and a strategic “wish list” of technologies/concepts that we hope will catalyze future collaborations with academia and industry.

Bio: Priyan Weerappuli is the Co-Founder/CEO of a University of Michigan spinout Extrinsic Immunity Therapeutics, and an Adjunct Research Investigator in the Departments of Chemical Engineering and Internal Medicine (Division of Haematology and Oncology). He is actively conducting both fundamental and translational research focused on elucidating the roles of ETs in health and disease. Over the past decade he has worked to decouple extracellular traps (as a material) from the manner and method of their formation through the use of DNA-histone mesostructures (DHMs), a reductionist biomaterial that recapitulates the structure and bioactivity of ETs. Using this platform, he and his collaborators have uncovered previously unknown pathways through which ETs may act in both health and disease. The long-term goal of his work is to gain a deeper understanding of the context-dependent roles that ETs and other nucleoprotein exudates may play in health and disease; and to inform and establish ET-targeting as a viable therapeutic paradigm.